


Vermilion

by mittagsfrau



Series: Hydra Husbands AUs [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Friends to Lovers, HYDRA Husbands, M/M, Oral Sex, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape Aftermath, triple agent Jack Rollins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:14:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29154123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mittagsfrau/pseuds/mittagsfrau
Summary: Jack is a triple agent and now he sends a request for extraction after the horrors he witnessed. He won't leave Brock behind.
Relationships: Hydra Agents/Brock Rumlow, Jack Rollins/Brock Rumlow
Series: Hydra Husbands AUs [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871758
Comments: 9
Kudos: 18





	Vermilion

I.

“Four. Seven. Cronos. Delta. Vermilion”, the director of SHIELD reads out loud.

“That’s the message”, she confirms. Nick Fury frowns.

“A request for an urgent extraction of an enemy agent who wants to change sides and his life is in danger”, she translates the code again.

“This could upset the entire operation”, Fury states. “I want proof first. Arrange a data drop off. I’ll look through the material myself and then I’ll decide.”

“If”, he adds, “and that’s a big if, this agent is valuable enough, I’ll consider it.”

II.

Jack carefully wraps his arms around his commander. Under the armor of self-deprecating humor, cocky arrogance and immense willpower Brock is frail. Jack can tuck him under his chin and his big hands span too much of Brock’s small waist. His body is shaped by iron discipline and the constant, overwhelming fear of not being good enough, that everything he ever gained, all his achievements, everything can and will be taken away if he doesn’t try hard enough.

Brock is tired but didn’t manage to find sleep for two days and nights. They didn’t have a mission, this is downtime, which is worse than being rattled around the world in quinjets. At least it is for Brock, who needs a task, needs to work to feel valuable and good about himself.

The almost manic energy is all used up. Brock sways on his feet and he blinks slowly, his eyes unfocused. His expressive face looks slack, his cheeks hollow, eyes deep in their sockets. Jack carefully brushes his thumb over the stubble covering Brock’s jaw. He leans into the soft touch, trembling like a beaten dog, that doesn’t know kindness. Days ago Brock had still bristled and snapped when Jack had tried to comfort him and insisted that he didn’t need to be ‘coddled’. Now he lets Jack hold him close, lets him take care of his injuries, bearing the treatment silently and awkwardly. Jack now knows that no one ever did this before – offer comfort and care without wanting something in return or belittling Brock’s concerns and pains.

They work together perfectly in their professional environment, in perfect sync without many words. Brock is, in Jack’s opinion, a tactical genius, a born leader, a great soldier and a fair and strict Commander. He holds everyone under his command to the same standards, his own incredibly high ones. Jack has been a soldier all his adult life and he’s good at what he does. That’s why Brock chose him as his SIC.

They have worked together for over a decade. First as Navy Seals, DEVGRU, then as SHIELD agents, STRIKE Alpha, best of the best. Jack considers their relationship as friendship. He’s a loner by nature and Brock can’t live without others. He’s entirely dependent on external validation. His self worth is tied to how people see him and Jack’s quiet and steady presence, his undying loyalty and support give him safety like he never experienced before.

Usually people who take interest in him want something. His perfect body, his skills, his power or even his money. Most of the time he’s just a very attractive piece of meat to others. Because he’s a man, people think they can comment openly about his looks, his body and touch with greedy, grasping hands what they desire.

Brock likes the attention. He knows, that he’s attractive to others even when all he can see in the mirror are imperfections, a work in progress, unfinished and flawed. Brock has always been the ‘pretty’ one. That means he got far just counting on his good looks and every effort he made in his education, his athletic achievements, even his personality, everything was overshadowed by how he looks. In the end he believes that he has nothing else to offer but that.

Time seems to work against him. He’s almost fifty now and as much as he hates to admit it, he feels it. Brock had resigned to trying to keep what he has. That’s why HYDRA approached him about a super soldier serum trial. He signed the forms without hesitation.

What followed was hell on earth. The agony of the genetic rewriting, his whole body, every single cell fighting it, nearly broke him but he survived and became stronger.

There was a heavy price to pay, though. That’s why Jack has to hold him now, fearing he would fall apart outside that sure embrace.

The serum is highly unstable. It works in fits and starts. Healing hurts and there’s so much to heal. Brock has finally stopped bleeding through his underwear and jeans an hour ago. His life isn’t in danger any more. Jack had straightened broken bones so that they would heal right but Brock’s right pinky finger will stay crooked.

The shower and the bathtub are still stained with the rusty residue of dried blood. Jack had bathed him like a child, washed his hair and his body clean of all the things that had been done to Brock as good as he could and Brock had melted into his soft and tender touch.

Here in this safe house they wait and in the early morning light cut into horizontal slabs by the half closed blinds, all the bruises and cuts, the suffering etched into his features slowly fade away.

The noise of a landing quinjet disturbs the tense silence. They don’t know if it’s HYDRA or SHIELD. Jack sent all the data he collected three hours ago, including a twelve hour video clip of Brock being tortured and raped.

He holds Brock tighter, who looks so small and fragile in Jack’s clothes. They are both too tired and broken to fight. Whatever will happen, they will face it together.

Brock leans up to kiss Jack. Just a little peck on the lips, chaste and sweeter than anything Jack ever tasted. Brock tries to smile reassuringly and Jack brushes his knuckles softly over his crow’s feet and knows he made the right decision as he sees all the things Brock can’t put into words in his red rimmed eyes.

III.

The Black Widow herself comes to pick them up. SHIELD then. Jack breathes a sigh of relief and in the familiar interior of quinjet Brock slowly finds his strength again, straightens his back, hardens his gaze but doesn’t let go of Jack’s hand.

Nick Fury debriefs them in a secret facility. There they will have to wait for the storm to blow over. Hopefully what they gave SHIELD on the Winter Soldier, Project INSIGHT and Alexander Pierce will be enough to stop the rise of HYDRA. Officially they are both dead, killed in action on a classified mission.

IV.

Brock sweats in his sleep. He tosses and turns restlessly, slipping out of Jack’s embrace. His usually carefully styled hair is soaked and clings in messy strands to forehead. Jack carefully brushes it back and murmurs soft and sleepy words of comfort until he has eased Brock out of his nightmare and his husband finally opens his eyes.

“I was there again”, Brock whispers, his gravelly voice even rougher with uneasy sleep, “displayed like a toy, a plaything and they…”

Jack carefully pulls him into his arms and Brock’s clings to him with all of his enhanced strength as he’s wracked with sobs, fingers digging bruises into Jack’s flesh.

Some wounds will never heal. They will have to learn to live with them, every day, every year they still have together.

“Please”, Brock whispers and kisses Jack desperately. “Make me forget, just for a while.”

Jack can’t deny him. He knows that their coping strategies are probably not healthy but they work so far.

He covers Brock in kisses, slowly and lovingly and with utmost care. He starts at Brock’s fingertips and works his way up from there. The inside of his wrist, the crook of his arm where his skin is so thin and soft and doesn’t let himself be rushed by Brock squirming and pleading until he has mapped out Brock’s entire body with his lips.

Then he will concentrate his efforts in worship below Brock’s navel until he falls apart under those ministrations. With the taste of brine on his lips he will seek out Brock’s until they fall asleep again.


End file.
